Is This the Most Underrated Art Form?

Recorded for Derek Hunt’s Creative Experience series, the interview follows Richard’s route from fine-art training into stained glass and the development of Rainbow Glass Studios in Stoke Newington, London. It considers how an old architectural craft can remain active and experimental rather than becoming fixed by tradition.

Richard discusses the relationship between applied craft and fine art, the realities of sustaining an independent studio, and the importance of learning through making. The conversation also looks beyond windows to kinetic sculpture and mixed-media work concerned with ecology, extinction and environmental fragility.

Topics discussed

• Stained glass within contemporary art and galleries
• Traditional skills, self-directed learning and experimentation
• Light, colour and glass as expressive materials
• Running an independent stained-glass studio
• Collaboration across art, architecture and specialist fabrication
• Kinetic sculpture, ecology and species extinction

The interview is part of The Creative Experience, Derek Hunt’s international series of conversations with stained-glass artists.